List of Famous people born in Najaf Governorate, Iraq

Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn Al-Ḥusayn Al-Mutanabbī Al-Kindī from al-Kūfah, Iraq, was a famous ‘Abbāsid Arab poet at the court of Sayf al-Dawla in Aleppo, and for whom he composed 300 folios of poetry. As one of the greatest, most prominent and influential poets in the Arabic language, much of his work has been translated into over 20 languages worldwide. His poetry largely revolves around praising the kings he visited during his lifetime. He started writing poetry when he was nine years old. He is well known for his sharp intelligence and wittiness. Al-Mutanabbi had great pride in himself through his poetry. Among the topics he discussed were courage, the philosophy of life, and the description of battles. Many of his poems were and still are widely spread in today's Arab world and are considered to be proverbial. His great talent brought him very close to many leaders of his time. He praised those leaders and kings in return for money and gifts. His poetic style earned him great popularity in his time.

Abū Ḥanīfa al-Nuʿmān b. Thābit b. Zūṭā b. Marzubān, known as Abū Ḥanīfa for short, or reverently as Imam Abū Ḥanīfa by Sunni Muslims, was an 8th-century Sunni Muslim theologian and jurist of Persian origin, who became the eponymous founder of the Hanafi school of Sunni jurisprudence, which has remained the most widely practiced law school in the Sunni tradition, predominates in Central Asia, Afghanistan, Persia, Balkans, Russia, Chechnya, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Muslims in India, Turkey, and some parts of the Arab world.

Muqtada al-Sadr is an Iraqi Shia cleric, politician and militia leader. He is the leader of the Sadrist Movement and the leader of the Peace Companies, a Shia militia that is a reformation of the previous militia he led during the American military presence in Iraq, the Mahdi Army. There were reports on 7 December 2019 of an armed drone attack on Sadr.

Abu Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn ʼIsḥāq aṣ-Ṣabbāḥ al-Kindī was an Arab Muslim philosopher, polymath, mathematician, physician and musician. Al-Kindi was the first of the Islamic peripatetic philosophers, and is hailed as the "father of Arab philosophy".

Sa'id ibn Jubayr (665–714), also known as Abū Muhammad, was originally from Kufa, in modern-day Iraq. He was regarded as one of the leading members of the Tabi'in. Sa'īd is held in the highest esteem by scholars of the Shi'a and Sunni Islamic tradition and was considered one of the leading jurists of the time. He also narrated several hadith from Ibn Abbas.

Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin, also known as al-Sajjad or simply Zayn al-Abidin, was the fourth Imam in Shiʻi Islam after his father Husayn ibn Ali, his uncle Hasan ibn Ali, and his grandfather, Ali. He was born, according to some sources, from Shahrbanu.

Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad Saeed al-Tabataba'i al-Hakim is a senior Iraqi Twelver Shi'a marja, one of the Big Four Grand Ayatollahs of the Hawza of Najaf and one of the most senior Shia clerics in Iraq after Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

Faiq Al Sheikh Ali is an Iraqi lawyer and politician of currently serving as a Member of the Council of Representatives of Iraq since 2014 and is the Secretary-General of the People's Party for Reform. In parliament, he is a member of the Judiciary (Legal) Committee. He led the Civilized Alliance for the 2018 Iraqi parliamentary election.

Sayyid Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi was an Iranian Twelver Shia cleric and conservative politician who was the Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council from 14 August 2017 until his death on 24 December 2018. He was previously the Chief Justice of Iran from 1999 to 2009.

Sayyid Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim, also known as Shaheed al-Mehraab, was a senior Iraqi Shia cleric and the leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). Al-Hakim spent more than 20 years in exile in Iran and returned to Iraq on 12 May 2003. Al-Hakim was a contemporary of Ayatollah Khomeini, and The Guardian compared the two in terms of their times in exile and their support in their respective homelands. After his return to Iraq, al-Hakim's life was in danger because of his work to encourage Shiite resistance to Saddam Hussein and from a rivalry with Muqtada al-Sadr, the son of the late Ayatollah Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, who had himself been assassinated in Najaf in 1999. Al-Hakim was assassinated in a bomb attack in Najaf in 2003 when aged 63 years old. At least 75 others in the vicinity also died in the bombing.